streaming

Netflix is set to announce today that its streaming video service will launch on the Nintendo Wii games console this spring, providing it with distribution in a potential 26 million additional US homes (note: the Wii is currently the most popular games console in the US). The company has previously secured distribution deals for the service through the Sony PlayStation 3 and Microsoft Xbox 360 games consoles, as well as through Roku OTT set-tops, TiVo DVR's and a number of other devices and platforms. "The launch of the Wii is a huge step forward for Netflix," Netflix founder and CEO, Reed Hastings, said in a prepared statement. "With the installed base of over 26 million, all WiFi equipped, that's almost one in four American homes.

Italian software company, Command Guru, recently produced an interactive, live streaming, fly-on-the-wall reality TV show, centering on the efforts of an international team of 10 developers, led by Cocoa guru, Aaron Hillegass (author of "Cocoa Programming for Mac OS X"), to develop a free, open source, social networking iPhone application in seven days ("from start-to-publish on the App Store").

Broadband video platform provider, Ooyala, said last week that it partnered with Tokyo-based Gotcha Media to deliver a live stream of last month's Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) heavyweight title bout between Fedor Emelianenko and Brett Rogers. According to the company, its live Internet streams of the event generated "ground-breaking" viewer numbers in Japan, and viewership of the on-demand version of the fight continues to grow even a month after the event. Ooyala claims that its platform's scalability allowed Gotcha Media to deliver high-quality video to over 15,000 concurrent viewers in Japan.

Los Angeles-based sports and entertainment presenter, AEG, is trumpeting the success of AEG Digital Media, the live and on-demand Internet video streaming business unit it launched in early October following its acquisition of Incited Media. In less than 60 days, the company says, AEG Digital Media--which it describes as a "provider of complete, turnkey, no-fail multimedia broadcast solutions" and which it says it formed in order to extend its reach to new audiences across the globe--has delivered over 25 events, including:

WHDI (Wireless Home Digital Interface), a consortium of consumer electronics manufacturers tasked with developing an industry standard for multiroom video, audio and control connectivity, has announced the completion and availability of its WHDI 1.0 specification. According to the consortium, the new standard enables full 1080p/60Hz HD video with Deep Color at a distance of 100 feet and through walls. The consortium claims that no other wireless standard combines this level of quality and robustness with the ease of multiroom wireless, and that the standard will allow consumers to build a wireless network in the home to take advantage of the latest content and interactive services.

Here is a round-up of some other interactive TV-related stories we didn't have room for in this issue:

In a posting on its corporate blog Sunday night, Justin.tv, a San Francisco-based company that bills itself as "the largest online community for people to broadcast, watch and interact around live video," announced the launch of a free, open API. "We want to make live video ubiquitous across the Web," the blog post stated. "We know there are dozens of use cases that live video would be perfect for: customer support, pay-per-view entertainment, remote education, collaborative gaming...the list is expanding every day. Unfortunately we can't build all of them, there are just too many. Instead, we want to let all of you build these applications.

Major League Baseball (MLB) announced Wednesday that its MLB.com At Bat 2009 iPhone/iPod touch application is adding more live video and will stream every regular-season MLB game for subscribers of its MLB.TV service, effective immediately. According to MLB, the application, which is priced at $9.99 and which it says will also offer complete live coverage of the baseball postseason, is the top-selling sports app in the Apple App Store.

In a posting on its official blog, Thursday, the White House announced that it is now offering a Facebook application in order to allow viewers to interact with and around the live streaming video events that it regularly organizes. The application embeds the White House live stream and allows viewers to comment on, ask questions about, and chat with one another about the event that is being streamed.

Webcasting specialist, iStreamPlanet, said Monday that it has been tapped by Microsoft to help deliver live streaming and on-demand coverage of the Wimbledon Championships for NBC Sports' Wimbledon Live service on NBCSports.com. According to the company, it will manage the encoding of live coverage of the tennis championship, as well as design and deploy a custom Microsoft Silverlight-based "media experience" that will leverage Microsoft Internet Information Services 7.0 (IIS) Smooth Streaming adaptive bit rate technology (adapts the video stream in accordance with the limitations of the end-user's broadband connection).

--Also Signs Deal with Gannett

--Company Offers Interactive Web Broadcasting Platform

Mogulus--a company which offers a free, ad-supported service that
allows people to launch their own live broadband TV stations (it claims
that its service, which launched last November, has already enabled
over 50,000 producers to launch their own Internet TV stations,
streaming over 100 million unique viewer minutes each month)--was
attempting to generate some visibility for its platform at the NAB show
earlier this month. In addition to showcasing its basic service
(consisting of 1) the Mogulus Studio, a browser-based collaborative
application that supports such features as multi-camera mixing and